Welcome back to another post of this special Summer series honouring our lovely planet. In this episode, we will be talking about one of the most important features of our planet that plays a key role in keeping the Earth functioning like a Swiss watch: the oceans.
Earth is also known as the blue planet for a good reason since oceans make up approximately 71% of its surface and 97% of its water. And why are oceans blue, you may ask? That’s to do with the fact that water absorbs the red colours from the light spectrum. Working as a filter, it leaves the blue colours of the light spectrum for us to see. However, we may also see some greenish colours due to the light bouncing at different particles within the water.
Oceans do as much as acting as heat accumulators and influence the weather along with the carbon and water cycles. And as you already know, they support a huge variety of some of the most amazing living creatures of the planet within its rich ecosystem.
Ocean currents move huge amounts of water around the globe influencing the weather and climate. This is done mostly by a difference in salt content and temperature so there’s always currents moving all the time, exchanging heat, taking carbon dioxide from the surface and moving it into the deep layers of the oceans. Thanks to one of these essential currents, we have quite mild weather in the North-West side of Europe, like in the UK and Scandinavian countries, as it brings the heat from the Caribbean.
Take a look at this short video to fully understand how ocean currents work.
Oceans are also responsible for the water cycle which brings rainfall to different parts of the globe when it’s needed. And we cannot skip the fact that humans feed on many types of fish, algae and mussels coming from these huge masses of blue water.
So, after all these important features oceans provide to the planet, can you imagine if any of them start to fail or just perform differently for some reason?
See in this interesting documentary what to expect in a global sea-level rise.
Industrial, agricultural and residential waste, excessive amounts of carbon dioxide, microplastics, overfishing, rising sea level provoked by climate change, and even excessive noise are the real threats to the oceans and their ecosystem. Like in a Swiss watch, every single part and every single gear needs to work perfectly for the whole system to work properly.
Now, let me ask you an important question. Have you ever peed in the water when going to the beach? If you are not lying, your answer would probably be a big YES. I presume we all feel guilty and had second thoughts after doing so, but here’s the fun fact - peeing in the water of the ocean or the sea is actually good as the combination of urea and the water makes up ammonium, which acts as food for the underwater ecosystem. Also, do you think all the living creatures in the ocean pee in a special toilet or something? Not really. They all do it in there. Can you imagine how many litres of pee a whale can provide on a single day? A lot more than you and me together, that’s for sure.
Check out this short video explaining all the chemistry behind the thing of peeing in the water.
Oceans are some quite amazing living things and a beautiful sight to enjoy at any given moment while looking at the horizon. The unpredictable waves, the rise and fall of the tide, the colour changes of its surface depending on how the sun rays hit the water, the extraordinary creatures living in them, the delicious variety of food we can feed on,... These and the boring stuff mentioned above, make oceans our best friends.
Let’s try to keep it that way with a bit of effort and a ton of common sense, so we can continue enjoying life on our lovely planet.
See you on the next episode.